This invention relates to a device for distributing products in roll.
More specifically, the distribution device according to this invention is used for sorting/handling products arriving from a plurality of channels or feeding dosers for receiving and forwarding the products to packaging or grouping lines.
Currently, in the automatic lines for forming packages of groups of articles, these units usually consist of one or more rows of products arranged in one or more layers and wrapped in a protective wrapper made of plastic material of heat-sealable type.
It is known that in current lines for forming and packaging groups of products of the “tissue” type, for example rolls of toilet paper or kitchen paper, the latter are first formed and singularised in a single roll in suitable operating stations.
The rolls are then directed, by feeding units, towards an apparatus known as “diverter” or “switcher” or “sorter”, which sorts and conveys the products towards a series of feed channels, either are equal in number or fewer or more than the number of dosing units which feed the sorting apparatus.
The feed channels, acting in conjunction with relative movement units, feed the products in a roll towards successive stations for defining the pack to be packaged.
The sequences currently used allow packs to made, starting from a predetermined number of feed channels, consisting of transversal rows side by side each comprising a number of rolls less than the number of feed channels, or at the most a number of rolls equal to the number of feed channels.
It is evident how the operating modes described above and used in the current lines for forming and packaging packs of rolls limit the possibility of packaging packs of different size with respect to the number of feed channels.
This problem can also be found in operating lines for feeding boxing units or equipment for palletising systems which require products packaged and arranged in of a number of predetermined rows and in any case different from that which may be made by the prior art packaging machines.
All this constitutes without doubt a drawback for the current lines for forming, packaging and handling in general packs of articles or groups of products in general.
In addition, the production lines must currently comprise two or more independent production units designed for packaging different types of formats (according to the market requirements) and which must also be all fed simultaneously.
For this reason, downstream of the sorting unit there may be present a large number of channels for feeding the products, the channels being served by the above-mentioned various production units with corresponding different types of format/rows side by side (single roll, double roll or formed with two or more layers of products) which require the continuous feeding of products.
In order to be able to satisfy this type of arrangement of multiple lines it is necessary, currently, to provide a large number of feed channels arranged side by side, with several sorting units, and a large number of dosing units. In addition, there may be product accumulation zones so as to be able to provide a buffer/standby products.
This means a high cost and a high level of monitoring inside the factory with obvious drawbacks in terms of the final cost of the packages.